Culture: 100 Thing Challenge, and other STPs

Sometime in late 2005, after a fish pen, camp stove and snowmobile were added to his list, I discovered Kyle MacDonald. Kyle had decided earlier that summer to obtain a house through incremental trades. He gave himself one year to do it, and began his bartering adventure with just one red paperclip. I read all of Kyle's clever updates and watched the media surround him. I cheered with everyone else for his success, all the while wondering (with everyone else) why I hadn’t thought of the idea – especially after having lived with my in-laws for the previous year. Since that time, I’ve noticed no small number of short-term projects (STPs) like Kyle’s: Live with only 100 personal belongings for a year, Take the Bible literally for a year, Produce no household trash for a month. These aren’t invent-the-telephone or get-the-first-plane-to-fly projects. They're more related to curiosity, personal goal-setting, and the advent of social and electronic networking.

Three observations

I can’t say for sure if STPs are a recent bandwagon phenomenon, or if the internet has simply increased our awareness. I can say that humans have an insatiable need for attention. Blogger, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter feed that need. Social connection tools provide us with a feast of curious eyes. And if those eyes can represent far away places like California, Kenya and Columbia, then all the better for our analytics measuring and lust for international reach. [caption id="attachment_4783" align="alignright" width="300" caption=""An example of a power law graph showing popularity ranking. To the right is the long tail.""][/caption] Second, browsing, linking and forwarding make it easier than ever to gather disciples. The Long Tail principle says that STP hosts have a far better chance of finding followers online than if they were to knock on every door in town. Diverse and far-reaching communication outlets and the ease of using them result in gathering a niche of disciples from around the planet willing to do whatever you inspire them to do. Third, while plenty of One Red Paperclip projects exist, most STPs seem to carry a humanitarian element. Despite our sinfulness and insecurity-driven quest for fame, people are remarkably motivated to change the world. They don’t all have Christ in mind, but they demonstrate a desire for healing and justice.

STP examples

Consider a few STPs that crossed my desk recently. 1. Michael Abbaté, author of Gardening Eden, created “No Waste November.” He and his wife are blogging about their efforts to waste no garbage this month. Check it out before Black Friday. 2. Dave Bruno, friend of HCB member, Michele Corbett, started the “100 Thing Challenge” last year with the hope of paring down his personal items to 100. Visit Dave's site or read Time Magazine’s article on him. 3. A.J. Jacobs treats life as a series of STPs. He began by reading the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica. He spent another year taking the Bible literally. And he captured his latest endeavors in The Guinea Pig Diaries, a compilation of “radical lifestyle experiments” such as “I Think You’re Fat,” and “My Outsourced Life.” Why do we undertake such interesting projects? To pinch ourselves to see if we’re still alive? To get a dose of public affirmation? To make a difference? Not all STPs have a spiritual bent or exist to serve the environment. Maybe that's okay. While I tend to think our heart, mind, soul and strength ought to be stewarded in a particularly biblical way, I understand how playfulness and curiosity, like Kyle’s, are good items in God’s world. So how about you? What STP would you consider starting? I’m serious. Tell us. Sketch it out below. Tell us which of the following relationships it might affect most: With Self, Others, Creation, or God. Post written by Sam Van Eman of New Breed of Advertisers. Long Tail photo by Hay Kranen / PD. Used with permission. -- Tune in next Friday for L.L. Barkat’s Random Acts of Poetry. Here’s her Poetry Prompt: This week over at @tspoetry, we had a poetry writing party around the theme "Fruits, Herbs & Spices (and the occasional snap pea & golden beet)". You can see all the info offered up by @tspoetry by stopping in at ts's Twitter account and looking at the November 10th tweets. Using the info as grist, cook us up a poem and post it by Thursday evening November 19 (you could also use info from one of your own recipe books, as an alternative). For sample poems, click on the #tsp tag to see what our party goers tweet-poemed. Drop your post link over at my place so I don't miss you. I look forward to your sweet offerings (or maybe they'll be spicy? )